Category: Featured

Female Founders: Noosheen Hashemi of January AI On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed…

Female Founders: Noosheen Hashemi of January AI On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Great founders are curious and learn fast. They work hard, persist, and are resilient. They have a high risk profile and conviction around the market. They’re great people managers, inspiring leaders, and phenomenal storytellers. It’s all about the team they can build.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Noosheen Hashemi.

Noosheen Hashemi is a tech veteran, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. She is the founder and CEO of January AI, a precision health tech company that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to prevent, predict, postpone and manage chronic disease. She also guides a family office that includes diverse investments in over 100 companies and venture capital funds. She is the founder of the HAND Foundation, focused on supporting scholars and organizations that promote discourse and socioeconomic growth among the disenfranchised. She lives in Silicon Valley.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I had a successful early career. I walked into Oracle at age 22 when the company had just closed out a $26m year and in the next 5 years, we doubled our revenues each year. During this time, I took on more and more responsibilities — at one point leading 12 essential functions — and eventually became a Vice President. Oracle was my 18-hours-a-day focus. After a dozen years in tech, I decided to focus my attention on raising my kids and running a family office, which included over a dozen startups and two foundations. I was also my kids’ primary teacher, homeschooling them and sending them to school for social development, and taking them to 105 countries. As they approached college age I could decelerate the focus on homeschooling. So, I began accelerating my tech career once again. In 2013, I started to take on operating roles in our portfolio companies and, in 2017, I decided to take a page out of Larry Ellison’s playbook and invest in myself.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

As a CEO of January AI, you’re recruiting 365 days out of the year. You can’t afford to use recruiters for every role so you become a recruiter yourself, spending countless hours sourcing on LinkedIn, asking your network for introductions to the smartest people they know who may be considering a transition or have a particular interest in your work, and so on. In my pursuit of a qualified Chief Science Officer, I cold-messaged the CSO of a top-three pharma company and mentioned that my cofounder had suggested I reach out for recommendations. He replied and we met shortly after in San Francisco to discuss January AI’s specific needs — like how academic or industry battle-hardened I needed the candidates to be — and that conversation led to a discussion about the pharma company’s needs and eventually a deal. It took one year, eight months, and 11 days to sign a contract but the view was very much worth the climb. Not only did I deepen my understanding of how to evaluate CSO candidates through the mentorship of my new friend, but also I was introduced to the massive opportunities for our offering in the pharma world.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I made mistakes but I’d say they were more tragicomic than funny. I have always been a sucker for smart people, and in my excitement and eagerness, I occasionally tried to put square pegs into round holes. But I discovered one’s intelligence — one’s ability to learn and process new information — isn’t everything. If a person lacks belly or is not product-driven, they can’t contribute at the level you need, that the company needs.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My husband, Zod Nazem, and I have been together over three decades. I supported him when, as Yahoo!’s first CTO, Zod took the engineering team from six to six thousand. When I started January AI, he supported me, by interviewing tech leads, attending machine learning sprint meetings and scientific advisory board brainstorming sessions, and being a sounding board for my strategic decision-making. He has deep tech, biotech, enterprise and consumer expertise to name a few so there’s no limit to the value of his support. At home, he’s taken on more of the family office responsibilities and life’s logistics to open space for me to focus 100% on January AI.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

There are many factors. A lot of women can’t afford to take risks. They may be primary caretakers of their children and homes, even if they are married and working. They may be taking care of ailing parents which is not only time consuming but also emotionally draining.

Add to that the fact that, in tech, we have a supply problem. Only 13% of engineers and 29% of computer scientists are women. Over 32% of women switch out of STEM degree programs in college and 40% of women who graduate with engineering degrees either never enter the profession or eventually leave it. Educational and organizational climate are partially cited as reasons why.

Historically, VCs are more likely to fund bros. Reports show that women are 81% less likely to be confident that they can access the necessary startup funds and they tend to underestimate their capital needs putting them at a significant disadvantage. My GSB classmate, Jennifer Gill Roberts, founded what would become Watermark to try to address the lack of funding for women entrepreneurs.

After graduating in 1993, we began our work as Forum for Women Entrepreneurs with the vision of enabling a woman to start billion dollar companies. It’s taken nearly 30 years for women to start unicorns, and the number is still small: just 21 in 2019 — and that’s worldwide. Social movements take decades and breakthroughs happen only when the entrenched interests come to believe that it’s time to change.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

There is no silver bullet. The way we’re living life is foundationally different from how our ancestors prospered. We were meant to live in smaller communities with intergenerational support. I don’t have great faith in governments being able to solve our entire childcare and eldercare challenges.

Instead, employers need to lead the charge by providing greater family support with family-friendly workspaces and onsite childcare facilities. But of course this is challenging, if not virtually impossible, for small startups. Higher education needs to do a much better job providing support for career development, internships, and entrepreneurship. Investors can build on recent successes and double down on women as founders and CEOs. Women need to seek mentors with gumption and those women who have made it need to invest in the next generation.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

I don’t think that we can make a categorical and prescriptive statement that women should become founders. Can the world benefit from more women founders? Yes! It would be good to have more women design and make products for women.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

One of the most common myths is that being a founder is glamorous. Working 14 hours a day and struggling to floss your teeth may be noble but it is not glamorous. Giving birth to an idea is not unlike bringing a child into the world. So much blood, sweat and tears go into it and it’s a long journey. Most people don’t realize that so-called “overnight success” takes 15 years.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

No. Not wanting to work for someone else is not a good enough reason to become a founder.

Great founders are curious and learn fast. They work hard, persist, and are resilient. They have a high risk profile and conviction around the market. They’re great people managers, inspiring leaders, and phenomenal storytellers. It’s all about the team they can build.

Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

Happy Buddha is the motto. Stay positive and realistic, be flexible and grateful. Know your stuff. And, importantly, know yourself. Self-awareness is just as important as ambition and confidence. Have a support system that corresponds to the audacity of your vision and never, never, never give up.

It goes without saying but having a great network is foundational for building a team, testing out pitches and tackling new markets.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I raised curious, caring, and competent kids. I have cultivated social entrepreneurs and served nonprofits for a couple of decades (check out The Hand Foundation). I have mentored thousands of people and continue to.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I am doing it. I am obsessed with the idea of prevention. Lifestyle-based chronic diseases should not be prevalent. We have the technology today to make them a thing of the past. We spend $3.8 trillion on the US healthcare — or, more accurately, “sickcare” — system, and this number is expected to balloon to almost $12 trillion by 2040. China is winning the AI game and one of its greatest applications is health. I am thrilled that they will save their population and I would love to see us make similar strides.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Lin Manuel Miranda. It’s said that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. Miranda made history accessible to all people.

He found a lane early and began swimming.

He has grit and keeps perfecting his craft.

He has passion, conviction and vision. He built an incredible team and cast. He scaled his idea into the world’s first billion dollar play and expanded its impact through multiple verticals. Yeah, he’s the ultimate storyteller. He’s one of the top five entrepreneurs of our time.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Female Founders: Noosheen Hashemi of January AI On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jenn Michelle of Glam Life: “Set a schedule; Setting goals and having a schedule is imperative in…

Jenn Michelle of Glam Life: “Set a schedule; Setting goals and having a schedule is imperative in ensuring your day is not scattered”

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Set a schedule. Setting goals and having a schedule is imperative in ensuring your day is not scattered. You can schedule content that you create to post on social media platforms, and this will help you get organized. Staying organized is imperative!

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenn Michelle of GlamLife & Women Warriors Collab.

JennMichelle is CEO of GlamLife Beauty, a Celebrity Makeup Artist & Hairstylist, Beauty Educator & Hair Extension Specialist, GlamLife TV Producer & Creator, Women’s Empowerment Advocate, and Entrepreneur. She is currently the Makeup Artist and Hairstylist for The Lifestyle Today Show on CBS, Cover and feature hairstylist for Bella Magazine. Founder of GlamLife Beauty Line, GlamLife Lash and Accessory Collection, JennMichelle is a one stop shop for all your beauty needs.

I always say I innately knew this is the field I would be in. I started my career training as a child. I am the oldest of 4 girls and grew up in a home with a lot of family. My cousins lived on the top floor, and they were girls too, so I always experimented and did everyone’s hair. As a teen and in my 20’s I was the friend doing everyone’s makeup and hair while we were getting ready to go to the city. One day I was in Macys’ looking at makeup to buy for myself, and at this time I wasn’t even doing makeup, when a girl came over to me and complemented my makeup. We started talking and by the end of the conversation I gave her my number. She told me she would call me to assist her with makeup at a fashion show for New York Fashion Week. I figured what’s the worst, that can happen, she wouldn’t call? Well…she called, and I went to NYFW to assist her and the other lead artist she had hired did not show up to the event. I got to do makeup on the models! It was my first makeup job and after that there was no turning back. I knew right then and there this is where I am supposed to be. I started to practice all the time. I watched videos, I took classes with big makeup artists, and gave myself a deadline that in 6 months I would go to MAC and apply. Back then there wasn’t all these competitive brands and MAC was the cream de la cream of Makeup Artists. I applied in a month, got the job, and was offered a management position within months of being there. I knew I was onto something! I started learning the back business of makeup and just took it all in. After being with MAC I wanted to launch my own brand. Yes, it was bold, but why not bet on myself right? I started my first makeup line called Jenn Michelle and the rest is history! Now my line is called GlamLife Beauty. GlamLife has grown, with a variety of cruelty free products ranging from lip sticks, matte lip glosses, lip glosses, lip pencils, highlighters, bronzer and blush palettes, eyeliners, detangle brushes, accessories, and more. I do hair and makeup for live shows, NYFW, MIami Fashion Week, off Broadway, TV, media, and major stations. I have been blessed and truly grateful for all that I do!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

In the beginning, I opened a salon. I had the best grand opening! I had people flooding out of the doors and it was truly one of the best days. After the opening I found out that the paperwork I signed to launch the salon was fraudulent. Being new to business I was totally taken advantage of and had to learn that lesson. Within the next few weeks, I moved out of my new salon and moved down the block. It took over 3 months to renovate but I was able to reopen, and it was the best thing that ever happened. I learned from that experience that every set back has a comeback.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My first job when I was thrown into NYFW. I had never worked professionally on anyone yet, and there was this model I worked on that I always laugh because she probably never forgot me or her eyebrows! I remember shaking but still pushing forwards. I learned to show up for myself and always be prepared because you never know when an opportunity presents itself that can change everything. Another lesson I learned was to take chances and bet on yourself. That moment changed my life!

Honestly, I can’t just put one person because it took a village. First and foremost, I am always grateful to God, my health, and my drive. I met some amazing and not so amazing people along the way that have taught me lessons that made me a better businesswoman. My daughters push me to be better and having a supportive partner is also a plus. I have goals and intentions for my businesses. I set those goals and intentions, pray on them, and that is my key to success.

I think women are intimidated. When I talk to a lot of other entrepreneurs, they don’t have the confidence going into it. I want women to know that they are capable of being able to run their own businesses. I feel that the issue is that women don’t have the support. A lot of women feel its unattainable and far-fetched. Confidence is key and they don’t know where to start or begin. A lot of people let that overcome their confidence for moving forward in launching their brand. They let their own insecurities intimidate them. I think that there needs to be a change in the industry. A lot of people in business can come off very “cut-throat” and competitive. I believe there is room for everyone to win. Therefore, I founded my group called Women Warriors Collab to show women that it is attainable and can we help one another grow and become successful. I feel like we need to remember to be kind and support other women with their brands because you never know how you can help one another out or collaborate.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

I feel like the government should have opportunities for new business owners. There should be some type of incentive instead of encouraging people to live off the government, they can encourage people to help create their own streams of income. Just like how they have an FHA Loan for first time homeowners, they should have better opportunities for small business owners to help them get started.

As for society, I personally feel that we need to support small businesses. We are so corporate consumed. We will support our favorite singer or celebrity as opposed to the struggling mom or business owner pursuing their dreams. They may not have that hit song and may not be on red carpets, but we should see the importance in helping the community and encouraging people to follow their dreams and goals. It goes full circle in how we can support one another.

I really push confidence as being the main factor in what holds women back from pursuing their dreams. If you feel you don’t deserve it, you aren’t going to pursue it and get anywhere. GlamLife wouldn’t exist if I didn’t believe in that dream. I believe in my brand, and I believe its valuable to others. It isn’t just about providing hair services either, it’s about helping someone’s confidence.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Financial freedom is everything. There is nothing more gratifying than having a dream, setting a goal, and achieving it. Women are intuitively running the world. We have so much knowledge and intuition that we are blessed with. I feel like the future is female. Raising daughters, I want to set an example. I am not a full-on feminist, but I think it’s important to show we can take care of families, the household and that we are mutli -functioning human beings. It comes full circle.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

Founders are cutthroat-I never went back on my morals; I have never stabbed someone in the back to get ahead. I am a true believer that what goes out comes back. You can stay true to yourself and support your fellow business owners. I support other hair and makeup artists constantly.
Someone helped us- I worked hard and in small little increments. I feel like sometimes they think that someone helped pay for a founder’s goals. Not everything financially comes in from family members. You could get it on your own.
True freedom-it’s hard work. You are front and center for your business every day. You are never not working and not learning. People see the good parts and they don’t see the blood, sweat, and tears you put in daily.

That’s a good question! I don’t think everyone is. I think everyone has potential but it’s not for everyone. It’s very hard and you need passion and drive and commitment to sacrifice things to get to that next level. When everyone is out partying are you willing to sacrifice nights in to level up? It comes down to the individual. It is attainable for everyone but you have to really want it and work towards it. You need to work hard and sacrifice.

I think people that are 9–5’ers or comfortable are able to be a regular employee. That is okay and what is for you doesn’t have to be for someone else. I am not comfortable. I don’t like to answer to anyone. I like to make my own schedule and push myself. Because of my daughters I push myself even further I want them to see that anything that I really have dreamt of I can make it my reality and attain it by working my butt off. It’s okay if you are a person that likes to work for others. People that are different. Acknowledge that people that want more of their own freedom to live life on their own terms, that’s more for founders.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, What are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Resilience. You must be able to bounce back from certain losses and keep on going when things are kind of rocky or don’t go your way. When I had the experience with my salon and the fraudulent lease, I was resilient. I didn’t let that experience deter me from accomplishing my goals and I was able to open that new salon front 3 months later because I was determined to make my dream come true.

2. Drive. This is the hardest thing for people to have sometimes. On days you don’t want to get up and work, you must find that drive to push through. I was diagnosed with blood cancer, and I didn’t want to get out of bed for a few days, but I had a brand I was building and had to wake up and show up for my brand. Show up for yourselves. Don’t let those bad days determine how you are going to work on you brand.

3. Set a schedule. Setting goals and having a schedule is imperative in ensuring your day is not scattered. You can schedule content that you create to post on social media platforms, and this will help you get organized. Staying organized is imperative!

4. Never stop learning. I constantly take classes to learn more. I attend conferences. I invest in a business coach. You must really invest in yourself and never stop learning. No matter where you are, you are never too good to learn from someone else. Someone may be ahead but don’t look at them as competition. You can learn from other people.

5. Stay consistent. Plan out your social media so that you are posting regularly and staying relevant. Trends are constantly changing on social media and staying on top of those trends is important so that you can continue to grow your platform.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I founded Women Warriors Collab because once I got to a certain point in my career, I noticed a lot of my clients were bosses and I was a part of some major networking groups. I wanted to come up with my own because I was always helping people. As a hairstylist and makeup artist I was helping women with their physical appearances so I thought how can I help them with their businesses? My goal is to showing women that there is nothing wrong with supporting one another. I love that in my group everyone can feel comfortable together sharing their hardships and achievements and everyone is happy for one another. In our group we are our own personal cheerleaders, and we share knowledge to help one another grow. We also give back. I like to always attach a charity to everything we do. I feel it’s important to pay it forward.

I would expand Women Warriors Collab. I would focus on giving back to younger girls, empowering women, and encouraging them. As women, we have a lot of pressure to know what we want to do immediately. Women feel like they must get married, have a family, and that’s it. I want women to know you don’t have to know. It’s okay to try different things. You have space to grow. Being a market partner, I help train and upcoming girls and I just would want to establish a community of women to encourage one another.

Mel Robbins. I actually did Mel’s hair once and I would love to sit down with her. She is super motivational and she is phenomenal. Very inspiring.

Jennifer Lopez. She is a New Yorker like me. She is someone who came from the city and made it big. She has various streams of income. She owns who she is.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Jenn Michelle of Glam Life: “Set a schedule; Setting goals and having a schedule is imperative in… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nikki Njeri Klugh: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Show off your personality. The perfect way to do this is through artwork. Whether you put up a large mural or several smaller pieces, there was a reason you fell in love with it in the first place. Maybe it shows a place you would like to visit, a dream you have for yourself, or a cherished memory. Either way it is the perfect way to express yourself.

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nikki Njeri Klugh.

As the design genius behind Nikki Klugh Design Group, Inc, Nikki is particularly adept at creating homes that are personal sanctuaries for her beloved clients. Known as the “Excellence of Execution” Nikki’s zone of genius is her ability to masterfully transform your home into a haven you can sink into after a long day at the office. In addition, Nikki also creates sacred spaces that provide you rest and restore your very spirit as you return from long days in a sometimes cluttered, stressful, and draining world.

Thank you so much for joining us in this series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

The truth is I was once considered an ugly duckling. No amount of care, concern, and love from my family made me feel better about myself outside my home. School was such a dreadful place, and I did not fit in. I needed a place to call my own Sacred Space where I could feel nurtured, loved, happy and safe.

A few years ago, I made this deep and personal connection to why I am so passionate about interior design. I believe in the sanctity of homes filled with love and care that also have nurturing environments. Because no matter what ugliness the world throws at you, everyone deserves a place of respite. A sanctuary. A Sacred Space.

I now know that the peace I felt even during my awkward stage was fueled by the knowledge that things and people can be transformed. Thus, the transformation from ugly and discarded to beautiful and cherished is something that will forever bring me joy.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

I began broadcasting my work via Facebook Live a few years back. I would have a couple of live viewers now and then. I became very discouraged by the low numbers and wanted to stop doing the videos. A business friend who predicted the shift to video in all aspects of social media encouraged me to continue. So, for two years, I went live on Facebook and toured projects I was working on and shared design tips with little to no real engagement. Sometimes it felt like the only person that cared was my mom. HA!

HOWEVER, it turns out those videos were what paved the way for me to do a national television commercial for a well-known brand. It did three things: 1. gave the casting director and producers consistent footage of me; 2. allowed me to practice learning my lines “in the moment”, and 3. Helped me get comfortable in front of a camera. The day of the video shoot flowed so naturally, like I was meant to be there. I credit my two years of practice for the opportunity and the incredible results. The commercial ran for six weeks and provided phenomenal exposure for my company!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I had just finished reading the book “The Tipping Point” when I received an inquiry from a well-known celebrity. I was soooooo excited to get my first celebrity client and was CERTAIN that my business would take off because of working with them. I was so wrong!! It’s funny to me now as I look back and see all the work that I’ve done to grow my company since then. What was I thinking to believe that success would come as simple as serving one famous person? I clearly didn’t understand the context of the book, but reading it kept me going in a moment when I wanted to quit…I never gave up and I’m happy for the boost it provided.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

Last year I was able to partner with The Kaleidoscope Project to join other BIPOC designers in recreating 24 rooms in a bed and breakfast in Lenox, MA. I was able to name the room after my muse, my mother, and I got to use some colors that I don’t usually get to work with. We were able to restore the beauty back into this building AND show off some great talent in the BIPOC community.

I am currently working on bringing my design services to condo living for those that want a luxurious and beautifully designed space in a high-rise building. This type of design is not usually a project my company takes on, but we are excited and ready for this new venture! I am thrilled to provide condo owners the same luxury design and customization of a large home without the huge price tag.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“True beauty emanates from the soul. The more deeply one is able to connect, the more radiant they become.”

When you connect with something, whether it is a person, a story, or an object, you feel the connection deep inside of yourself. When I work with clients, I provide them with an in-depth design assessment. I do this so I can become connected with not only their wants and needs, but who they are as a person. This allows me to provide them with a design that truly speaks to their lifestyle and makes them feel understood.

There are so many fellow entrepreneurs that have helped me along my journey; however, if it had not been for my friend, Kim Warren, inviting me to a two-day conference focused on entrepreneurship, I would not have started down this pathway to create something bigger than me. That conference was the beginning of me seeing the gaps in my understanding of business and challenged me to learn more. It also provided an amazing community that would continue to support me with every challenge, every win, and every breakthrough I’ve had in the past twelve years. I’m forever grateful for Kim and that I get to do business and life with people who are brilliant, generous, and supportive.

Thank you for that. Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

At the very core of sparking joy in your living space is the want to be surrounded by things that make us smile. We all work hard and at the end of the day we just want to come home to a space that shows us why we work so hard. There are things in our homes that diminish our joy, and we don’t even realize it! Boring walls, messy tables, basic colors, and so much more make us feel like we are just guests in our own space. Take back your space and amp up the joy with these tips:

Show off your personality. The perfect way to do this is through artwork. Whether you put up a large mural or several smaller pieces, there was a reason you fell in love with it in the first place. Maybe it shows a place you would like to visit, a dream you have for yourself, or a cherished memory. Either way it is the perfect way to express yourself.
Add pieces from your travels. When you travel, not only are you exposing yourself to a place that is different, but you are embarking on a treasure hunt that can remind you of this trip for years to come. Displaying your treasures in your living space will surround you in good memories, but they will also be conversation starters when you have friends and family over.
Display photos of loved ones. Something the pandemic has taught us all is that we can’t take time with our loved ones for granted. Take those family photos. Get your group of friends together in a photo. Do a photo shoot at home with your furry friends. Once you have these photos, display them around your living space. Having your loved ones surrounding you will make your space feel more like home and make them feel closer when they can’t be there.
Clear the Clutter. Nothing stresses you out more when you get home than coming home to an unorganized mess. I suggest creating a place where everything is supposed to go, but don’t make it too much work or you will end up in this same situation a few months from now. Utilize stylish bins or furniture with built in storage to add some function to your space without losing style.
Utilize Color Theory. Certain colors spark different feelings when you see it. Take the time to look at a variety of colors and take note of how you feel when you see them. The colors that give you the feeling of happiness and serenity are the basis of your personal color wheel. Use these winning colors in your space in a variety of ways (paint, décor pieces, furniture, and textiles) to create your happy place.
BONUS: Create a Conversation Area. Most living spaces are centered around a TV, but what if I told you it doesn’t have to be like that? Feel free to take a risk with your furniture arrangement and create a space that encourages conversation. Focusing the room on your guests will make them feel welcomed and provide great conversation which in turn sparks joy and creativity!

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Mental health advocacy is something that I am deeply passionate about. Mental health disorders and diseases touch all our lives in some way whether it’s us personally or someone we know and love. I would give anything to remove the taboo nature of the subject of mental health so that people who are suffering would be free from the stigma and shame thus more willing to reach out when they need help.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them 🙂

I would love to have a private lunch with Angela Bassett because I am inspired by her dedication to not only her craft, but her moral convictions. She’s a brilliant woman of class and substance and it would be an honor to meet her and glean from her life experience.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: @nikkiklughdesign

Facebook: @nikkiklughdesigngroup

YouTube: Nikki Klugh Design Group

Pinterest: Nikki Klugh Design Group

LinkedIn: Nikki Klugh Design Group

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational!

Nikki Njeri Klugh: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Sarah Bolt of Forth On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman…

Female Founders: Sarah Bolt of Forth On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Believe in yourself — Some women can suffer from a lack or self-belief and feel as if they are not qualified to lead a business or deserving of investment. Imposter syndrome and this feeling of inadequacy needs to be crushed as quickly as possible. A person’s inner saboteur can be fatal to growing a business and female entrepreneurs need to believe they are good enough. Afterall, how can you expect investors to back you if you don’t back yourself.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Bolt , CEO & Co-founder Forth.

After completing a Masters Degree in behaviour change at the University of the West of England which was followed by a period of time working as a strategy planner in the Healthcare sector, Sarah took a leap of faith and founded Forth. In 2020 Sarah won Health & Wellbeing Entrepreneur of the Year for Wales, at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

When I turned 40 I was working as a NPD Manager for Dyson, commuting 3 hours a day whilst trying my best to be a good mum to two young boys. Life just wasn’t working and it certainly didn’t feel enjoyable. My career has always been important to me and I didn’t want to give that up, but I asked myself what kind of imprint would all these hours working, leave on society, what would be my legacy? I decided that I wanted to move into a sector that had more purpose, one that could benefit from the 20 years marketing experience that I had spent working on global brands. Healthcare was the sector I set my sights on, so I gave up my job, enrolled on a part-time masters degree in Social Marketing (marketing for social good), whilst at the same time getting some temporary contracts with the NHS, working on behaviour change campaigns. Seven years after making that jump I founded Forth.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Just before the Covid pandemic hit, I kicked off the company’s second investment raise (bad timing I know). I started pitching to investors telling them about this fantastic product that we were developing called Female Hormone Mapping which was going to revolutionize women’s understanding of their hormones and provide much needed certainty to the perimenopause audience. I’d been living perimenopause for the previous 5 years so had first-hand experience of the challenges women face. I presented to one 50+ male investor who agreed that we did have a great opportunity but that the company didn’t have sufficient resources to make it a success but he did, and rather than investing in the business could I license the product to him instead!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’m not sure that there really were any funny mistakes in the first couple of years, not because we didn’t make mistakes but at the time they didn’t seem very funny. One lesson I did learn in the early days was never to be too ambitious on how much work you might get done on your family holiday. On the first holiday after we’d started the business, a bottle of water leaked in by bag during the flight and my laptop spent 3 days drying out in the Tuscan sun. On the second holiday my son dropped a can of fizzy drink over my laptop resulting in cleanup operation to get the keys working again and another 3 days drying in the sun. Lesson learnt — remember there are times when you do need to leave the work at home and give some time to your family.

Totally agree, and as a founder it is definitely detrimental to adopt a silo mentality. I have reached out to mentors throughout my start-up journey, who have filled different support functions at different times. But I would never have been able to embark on this journey without the support of my partner who supported me at two crucial points, firstly to resign from my job and enroll on a Masters Degree, and then to put it all on the line again to start the business. I think founders have higher appetites for risk but at the end of the day we all need someone who is a constant to lift us during those lows.

Yes, although progress has been made we are still chasms apart from our male counterparts. In my experience two things are definitely holding women back. Firstly, you can’t escape the fact that the majority of Angel investors are 50+ white males and VC investment committees are mostly made up of men. There is definitely a difference in gender attitudes and approach. Research indicates that male founders are largely asked questions around size of opportunity whilst with female founders the questions are primarily focused on risk. Added to this is the female trait of not ‘bigging up’ their own achievements. Sometimes women can be their own worst enemy by not having enough confidence in their abilities. Times are changing though and I’m seeing more female led investment funds and a growing opportunity to invest in female led business particularly in certain sectors such as Femtech.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

On the one side VCs need to appoint more women to their investment committees so there is more of a balanced view of the companies they chose to invest in and the questions they ask. On the other side as a society we need to see more female role models held up in the media and in business circles. This will start to normalize female entrepreneurship, so it is perceived as an option for any woman rather than a selected few. I believe we all have a role to play in giving girls and women the confidence to believe in themselves and that anything is possible.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Well let’s start with the obvious, women are great multi-taskers and you’ll certainly need that in the first stage of any business. Also women tend to start a business in areas that they feel passionate about which make them not only dedicated to making the business a success but also making sure that they don’t cut corners. Finally, and I know I am generalising here, but I believe women tend to concentrate more on the ‘Make it’ rather than the ‘Fake it’.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

I think the word entrepreneur is associated with a certain glamour but the reality is far different. It’s hard and you will spend more hours working than you ever had before. You’ll also need to be prepared to turn your hand to literally anything from negotiating investment raises one day to taking out the bins the next.

I think the greatest trait you need as a founder is resilience. You are going to experience some fantastic highs but these will be combined with some awful lows. You need to brush yourself down, put a plan in place and forge ahead. And you will need to do this time and time again. Is everyone cut out for this? Probably not, but more women could be if they had greater confidence in themselves.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?”

Resilience — I mentioned this earlier but you can’t underestimate how important it is for an woman founder to possess strong resilience which gives them the ability to bounce back time and time again. You’ll need this not only to face the often brutal investment journey but also you can be sure that alongside your business successes will sit a number of business failures.
Get a mentor — I’ve found advice from others who have trodden the start-up pathway and have come successfully out the other side invaluable. You learn so much in the first 5 years and having that kind of insight in the early stages helps to spring board your journey and avoid mistakes. I think it is also healthy to change your mentor or have a couple at the same time so you can hear different viewpoints. However, it is always worth remembering that whilst listening to advice is always important, you are the expert in your business, so while you can be steered by advice from others, don’t let it drown out your own opinion.
Believe in yourself — Some women can suffer from a lack or self-belief and feel as if they are not qualified to lead a business or deserving of investment. Imposter syndrome and this feeling of inadequacy needs to be crushed as quickly as possible. A person’s inner saboteur can be fatal to growing a business and female entrepreneurs need to believe they are good enough. Afterall, how can you expect investors to back you if you don’t back yourself.
Never stop learning — As a successful entrepreneur you must know your business and your market inside and out. It’s crucially important for tech business and anyone evolved in new evolving markets, like healthtech, to keep forging ahead, to not only keep abreast of new innovations but to be at the forefront of leading new innovations. You stand still at your peril.
Don’t stop talking to investors — Raising money can be a long and exhausting experience which will divert your time away from the business. Founders are often relieved when they complete an investment round and put it to the back of their mind until the next time. This is a mistake. Investment raising always takes twice as long as you think so you must start having those conversations as soon as possible. I’ve learnt that it’s better to have on-going conversations/check-ins with potential investors, keeping them appraised of how the business is doing so when you come to raise they are already warm to the businesses potential.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Our mission is to turn people into citizen scientists by giving them the knowledge and information they need to navigate their way to better health. At the beginning to achieve this we started by giving people easy and quick access to biological testing of their body’s key biomarkers for good health with results displayed on an intuitive dashboard which supports people in how to improve.

I wanted to empower people to learn more about their own unique bodies and in doing so encourage them to adopt better behaviors and take greater responsibility for remaining healthy. I believe companies like Forth are changing the face of modern healthcare by giving people greater ownership of their own health.

Today our goal is to put a greater focus on trying to help close gender health inequalities. Our first project has been to give woman better insight into female hormones, particularly for women who are going through the perimenopause.

I am proud to say that the Female Hormone Mapping product is launched. It is a ground-breaking product which combines AI with blood analysis to predict how a woman’s hormones fluctuate throughout their entire cycle, unique to them rather than on a single day which is current clinical practice. It’s a game-changer for woman particularly those who want the certainty of entering the perimenopause, a time of life, where woman are unfortunately lacking sufficient support.

Closing the gender data gap within healthcare is a key area where I would like to see big improvements made. To date a large amount of modern healthcare/pharmaceutical is based on evaluation/trials in men, with the assumption that women bodies will present/react in the same way. We now know that there are huge differences, for example in how women present with a heart attack which means that women are more likely to die than men because doctors don’t recognise the symptoms. More women only clinical trials could make a huge difference in the healthcare for women. And as women make up halve the population that a pretty big number who would benefit.

I get inspired by different people at different times. At the moment this person would be Professor Sarah Gilbert the woman behind the Oxford vaccine who despite her own best commercial interests insisted that it was distributed on a not-for-profit basis until Covid-19 loses its pandemic status. Remaining true to her strong moral compass of making a positive social impact rather than personal gain, is one I hope to hold onto and is a key reason why I started Forth.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Female Founders: Sarah Bolt of Forth On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Debra Cleaver of VoteAmerica On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as…

Female Founders: Debra Cleaver of VoteAmerica On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Extreme patience. You can’t predict the future. Things may work out exactly as you’d planned, but far more likely, they won’t. You will encounter roadblocks, changes, nay-sayers, critics, exhaustion, and failures. These things are inevitable. But if you trust your gut and believe in what you’re building, you’ll get where you’re going eventually.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Debra Cleaver.

Debra Cleaver is the founder and CEO of VoteAmerica, a nonpartisan national nonprofit leveraging research-driven campaigns to register and turnout the 100+ million Americans who are traditionally excluded by partisan outreach efforts. Debra is a serial founder whose organizations include Vote.org (2016), ElectionDay.org (2018), Long Distance Voter (2008), and Swing the State (2004). Debra is an alum of Pomona College and Y Combinator, and a former Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship.

The second presidential general election I was eligible to vote in was 2000. Even if you’re not a political junkie, surely you remember that presidential election: George W. Bush, Al Gore, and the “hanging chads.” I was watching the returns late at night, after most of my friends had already gone to bed believing that Florida had gone blue, when suddenly a box of ballots was found in Broward County and everything changed. After a recount and several weeks of legal battles, the state was ultimately declared in favor of Bush. Watching the process unfold, I felt unnerved on so many levels, but what upset me most was that all of it stemmed from low voter turnout. Such low turnout, that the outcome of an American presidential election could be decided by the results of just one single county.

We’re still feeling the effects of that election’s fallout, having established a new low standard of confidence in our election systems. I have a bias toward action, so witnessing this inspired me to do something about it, to somehow help ensure that our future elections would be more safe, secure, and most importantly, a fully honest reflection of the population. We all seem to have this vague sense that there are people addressing major systemic problems, but that’s often not true. If you can’t name the person who is actively working on fixing as issue, then it might as well be you.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

When I was first getting started in 2013, I was contacted by an independent research group which analyzes voter registration data. At the time, I was still working full-time at MySpace. I’d started this vote-by-mail group as an after-hours hobby, a way to blow off steam really.

This group had called to verify what the budget had been for my efforts (only about $5,200). They assumed I must’ve left off a zero because apparently the work I’d done had ultimately registered more than 100,000 voters. I’d inadvertently run one of the top 20 biggest voter registration campaigns in the country, on a fraction of the budget spent by others. There were groups who literally spent millions of dollars annually driving voter registration. I’d only spent about 80 hours of my personal time on the whole thing.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The funniest mistake I made was not realizing I was forming a company in the first place! When I first built Long Distance Voter, I didn’t recognize that I was forming what ended up becoming a critical part of the infrastructure for Vote.org. Before I paid myself a single dollar, I’d created what became the most authoritative source of information not just for voting by mail, but voting period.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from Sam Altman, who was at the time the President of Y Combinator. I’d been accepted into the Summer 2016 class of the organization, which provides seed funding and 3 months of intensive mentorship to select startups. About 10 weeks into each term is Demo Day, when all of the companies get the opportunity to pitch their product or service to a privately invited group of investors. Only a handful of nonprofits participate in Y Combinator and due to legal regulations, we’re the only ones allowed to ask for money during our 1 minute onstage. I needed $600,000 to properly fund what I wanted to accomplish at Vote.org, which I thought was an incredibly large sum. Several people advised me against directly asking for the investment, to instead focus on highlighting my organization’s cost-efficiency. It was Sam who told me to get up there and do exactly what I needed to. “People are going to raise millions of dollars today, for things that are far less important than U.S. democracy. If you need $600,000, don’t beat around the bush. Just ask for it. And in the future, never ask for anything less than exactly what you need. Ever.” That was a game changer.

Female founders are held to impossibly high standards. Men who have great ideas are seen as visionary. They’re funded for their ideas and potential alone. Whereas women who have great ideas are expected to also demonstrate at least a decade of proven accomplishment, or else we risk being seen as unprepared, unseasoned, just not ready for the challenge. It creates a chicken vs egg scenario. We need to prove what our vision can accomplish without funding, which can be almost impossible to achieve without the funding.

Men get funded for ideas alone, while women have their competence questioned every step of the way.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

As individuals, we need to recognize and correct the gendered differences between our expectations for male vs female founders.

Most male founders have a female partner at home, that is taking care of everything outside of work, often while also working a job themselves. The house, the children, their emotional wellbeing.

As females, we need to support other female founders. We’re held to the impossibly high expectation that we not only need to show significant success, competence, and drive, but also be nurturers. When considering some of the most successful male founders, their interpersonal demeanor almost never comes up. Yet female founders are expected to be warm & fuzzy at all times, then constantly criticized for our tone.

We all need to have an eye for these disparities, speak up, and push back.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Women generally have a deep well of expertise that we don’t even recognize in ourselves. Without even acknowledging it, many women are able to have a successful professional career, while putting in the extra hours at home too.

Also, representation matters. The image of a founder is typically that of a techie in a hooded sweatshirt. The more we recognize successful women Founders, the more easily we can picture ourselves in that role as well.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

We idolize founders. They’re seen as larger-than-life visionaries capable of accomplishing things greater than we mere mortals can even dream of. But the truth is that the most successful founders can likely only do two or three things extremely well. The ability to bring their vision to life is necessary, but even more important is the ability to delegate crucial aspects of the business to people who know how to do them better than they do. You can’t become a successful founder alone. And your competence won’t be recognized unless you shout your successes from the mountaintops, demanding recognition.

To be a founder, you have to be incredibly comfortable with uncertainty. Every day is highly varied and unique. As an employee, your days are fairly consistent. You start your day, do similar activities each day, and develop a deep expertise in those actions. But a founder needs to be more of a generalist, capable of rapidly and constantly learning new things to a point of competence but probably not excellence. Maybe you’re great at building apps but not at building publicity campaigns. You’ll still need to develop at least an intermediate understanding of the widely varied, often unrelated, skills necessary to make your company flourish, then hire someone who can do it even better than you to take it further. Unless you know the basics, you won’t know what to look for in that next hire, or how to properly recognize the difference between good and great.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

Confidence in your abilities. Recognize what you’re best at and double-down on these strengths. Conversely, be sure to reflect upon your weaknesses. Recognizing where you have gaps in skillset will allow you to recognize the roles you need to hire for first.
Comfort with uncertainty. I can guarantee you that every day will be different from the last. You’ll have to put out more fires than you could ever dream of. So be prepared to roll with the punches and make constant adjustments to your strategy.
A genuine excitement for learning. No matter how prepared you are, you will have to learn new things, constantly. If you are the type of person who approaches every opportunity with a growth mindset, no matter the outcome of our business, you’ll come out a winner.
Extreme patience. You can’t predict the future. Things may work out exactly as you’d planned, but far more likely, they won’t. You will encounter roadblocks, changes, nay-sayers, critics, exhaustion, and failures. These things are inevitable. But if you trust your gut and believe in what you’re building, you’ll get where you’re going eventually.
A network of other founders. No one can succeed in a vacuum. Having human resources you can connect with is essential. They may be going through the same struggles you are. Or they may help you view things through a completely different perspective. Either way, don’t forget to surround yourself with people who have a similar mission to build something for themselves.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Every single day, I wake up and do my best to ensure that US democracy continues to exist 4, 40, and 400 years from now. We all deserve to have a voice and it’s my mission at VoteAmerica to make sure every single voice is heard.

To bring the greatest good for all of us in the future, we need to work together to address climate change. I believe passionately in a fully engaged electorate, in building a world which is by the people, of the people, and for the people. But it’s crucial that we also protect the planet which we all occupy. Otherwise there may not be a future world for us to cast our votes in.

I would love to meet the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. Not only did she become the world’s youngest leader of a free nation when she took office, but then she was also the second elected world leader to give birth while in office, but then she went ahead and also did an exceptional job managing the COVID-19 pandemic in her country (while simultaneously raising an infant, alone). We could all learn some valuable lessons in time management and personal fortitude from her, without a doubt.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Female Founders: Debra Cleaver of VoteAmerica On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Patricia Del Gavio: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Create a work space that you can call your own. This is especially important since working from home has become a part of the new normal. It doesn’t even need to be a space you spend tens of thousands to create. It should be a designated space and should NOT be a space you have to move dishes or laundry to work!!! It needs to be a space you can leave intact at the end of each day. It could be as simple as a bridge in front of a window alcove, a bookcase that has a deeper shelf to sit at, a repurposed niche or closet, or a section of the living room or guest room you never use!! Remove yourself from the everyday activities and take time alone!

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Patricia Del Gavio.

Pat Del Gavio is a design firm principal with more than 20 years of experience in Interior design, project coordination + oversight and furnishings + fixtures in the greater Bay Area and Colorado.

She’s passionate about supporting busy, dynamic homeowners and executives to design, plan + furnish their dream project(s) from inception through installation and delivering a customized, intentionally-designed home and office environments.

Pat works closely with clients, realtors and building owners designing and furnishing office spaces, consciously tracking current trends and enjoys hiking, travel in Europe and flyfishing.

Yes, I’ll tell you the story that brought me to this career. It was desire for freedom to create my own path. I’d moved cross country to California from New Jersey. I was trying to find an opportunity, having studied business and worked for a clothing manufacturer, I was wide open! I tried the employment agency route and scanning the job pages. Then all of a sudden one day, here it was, this ad caught my eye, it read,

“Be Your own boss, make your own hours, great income”. well… what’s not to love there!

So here I go… I called to make an appointment for an interview.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Turns out it was a gentleman who wanted to create an office furniture dealership! I knew nothing about this but have total confidence I can do anything and we could accomplish this.

I did get the job. I was initially responsible for researching and meeting with manufacturers and developing the lines of products we would sell our corporate customers. I eventually hired the team to sell them too! This all came about because I didn’t have any fear of stepping outside of my comfort zone to lead and to take ownership.

It did give me everything the ad promised and more, and eventually my career, which has continued for years to bring me joy and satisfaction.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of the not so funniest blips we made was designing this huge custom reception station for the Gap Corporate office. It didn’t fit into the elevator to get to the second floor! Oops!! We delivered it back to the manufacturer who felt some responsibility for not offering any advice at the time of fabrication. They were able to make several pieces which could be assembled in the field. Saved by the saw!! I use the measure twice and three times ever since.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

I have successfully ventured from commercial office furniture and design projects, to mid to higher end home design, construction coordination and furnishing We’re currently working in the Bay Area and Colorado, on the design of custom homes with all kinds of interesting features. To name a few, we have one home with a glass elevator inside a spiral glass staircase, they also have an interior climbing wall. We designed a custom 3 story tall light fixture last year interior atriums open to the sky or sky lighted to the outside. I absolutely love working on diverse projects and creating the most comfortable exciting environments that bring joy to my clients. We’re working in mid-century, contemporary and currently an English country style home design. We’re often spending time creating home and office environments to manage the Pandemic considerations that really need to be taken to enable folks to feel safe. We encourage our clients to enjoy these times safely and find their own comfort level with family inside and out of their home.

This has really served us well in changing times, meaning if office business was slower, residential boomed. And this is the case of the last 2 COVID years…. Our corporate business is on the rise again, there is a growing comfort level in the Bay Area but we’ll proceed slowly with caution.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of my favorite Life Lesson Quotes is “What can be conceived, can be created” I learned this from a past employer who sadly isn’t with us any longer, way too young! It was adapted from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. He would say it all the time when we needed strength to do step outside the box.

I came from a small town, I had to have my own initiative and incentive, I wasn’t really pushed to achieve a goal. My parents told me I could do anything I set my mind to, and because of this I had no fear. This businessman was the one who gave me the opportunity I mentioned, helped me find my career path. He was the first person who believed in me enough to allow me to branch out, stretch my abilities and very quickly succeed. It was dedication and consistency, to power on and be inquisitive. It’s important to ask questions, obtain answers and truly make happiness happen! I wish for you to find the inspiration from within.

This is an interesting topic. First, we realize ion order to have true joy in your living space it comes from within and the family and friends you surround yourself with.

We can enhance an environment and build out spaces by including the effect of lighting, play of color, furnishing and textures to help you enjoy the space, also to feel happy and healthy, it requires an additional regiment which includes rest, exercise and diet.

Thank you, these are 5 Things you can do to help your living space spark more joy!

Tip Number 1:

Plan to take on a home enhancement project. We spend more time there; we can make it shine! Here is a handy guideline to follow and guarantee your success.

1. Understand what it is you’re trying to accomplish. This may include the room location + scope + tasks.

2. Consider and create your aesthetic. What makes you feel good, relaxed, excited, or energized. Do you like contemporary, traditional, mid-century or a bohemian vibe? Let’s create a mood board or houzz.com idea book. I think boards are a really good way to hone in on the choices. There are so many options, it’s incredible.

3. Spend time space planning to ensure you purchase the right scale fit, not just what looks pretty, and comfort is key.

4. Timeline, have a goal of when you would like to start and finish, ensure you source items available in the time you want them.

5. Budget, allocate most of your budget to essential items that really impact the way you feel and live in the space

We have been in not so well thought out spaces with huge light fixtures or tiny chairs for large people. It can often save to hire an interior designer. By being excited to start your mission and preparing in advance, it is the way to make it yours.

We find if we read all of the details in the description of the items it will help to make the right choice.

Tip Number 2:

Create a work space that you can call your own. This is especially important since working from home has become a part of the new normal. It doesn’t even need to be a space you spend tens of thousands to create. It should be a designated space and should NOT be a space you have to move dishes or laundry to work!!! It needs to be a space you can leave intact at the end of each day. It could be as simple as a bridge in front of a window alcove, a bookcase that has a deeper shelf to sit at, a repurposed niche or closet, or a section of the living room or guest room you never use!! Remove yourself from the everyday activities and take time alone!

For many of us, remember, it’s the place that you spend many of your waking hours, you want to love YOUR space, it’s been gratifying to be able to bring the elements of commercial, productive work spaces into the personal aspect of someone’s home –including adjustability and comfort above all

Tip Number 3:

Add a fresh coat of paint! Have you walked into a room, looked at your walls and seen that they can use a fresh coat, the corners may be scratched from the vacuum or they are just dull!
I’d head straight to the paint store or call a professional.

Decide the color scheme that can work for you and your overall color theme. are you most comfortable in spring, summer, fall, or winter colors? Summer colors are bright cool, and winter muted cool tones, spring tones are bright warm colors and autumn is muted warm. Confused? Do a little google search into the season of color.

You can choose a clean white versus color. Now the joy and fun begins, once its painted.

find fun art work that speaks to you. I’d suggest you sort through the albums of photos. Is it a family photo wall, or enlarged photos of the last vacation you’d like to remember? Maybe the next trip photos to inspire you to plan and look forward will spark your interest?

It looks well planned to add a common color or same sized picture frames to make them all cohesive and warm your heart!

What makes you smile when you see it is the perfect choice. Surround yourself with the memories and people you love to share it all with!

Tip Number 4:

Are you spending more time at home in the living room?

Rearrange the furniture, it’s free. Or replace that old sofa and chairs! Carve out a space for a game table or larger coffee table for your next project, puzzle or game. You can make it more convenient to spend time with your loved ones to play chess, dominos or cards. good old-fashioned fun never goes out of style. I like to think that interactions over these planned gatherings bring closeness to your relationships and build traditions.

If you aren’t in the mode to break the budget, simply add pillows, find textures, patterns and colors that you haven’t used before and in combinations that are fun!! Add a lamp or arcing light fixture, floor style that will add a warm ambiance to the room. You can benefit by selecting light color temperatures that will be soothing like a 2700 to 300K warm light. You will immediately notice the difference and feel the joy.

I receive more and more new furniture and bedding catalogs. There are several style and price ranges available. Have you noticed when you scan through them, you might think it all looks so special lovely and fresh? Do you want to tag many of the pages? I want this and that and this looks cool! Well surprise, look closely, the basic colors are neutral. It’s all in the accents and accessories!

Make it your own and select items that tie in and flow through out your living spaces. It will feel larger and well connected.

Tip Number 5:

I would highly suggest you create an intimate cozy nest in your bedroom, why not re-dress your bed! Splurge, it’s where you spend possibly 1/3 of your life. Select bed sheets with the higher thread counts. You might try 400 or more thread count, it is wonderful. You will feel how smooth they seem and they also last forever so the little extra cost is worth it. Next add a new blanket or comforter and bed pillows. Pillows don’t last forever after all, it’s best to replace them every few years. You can add comfort to your nights rest when you tuck that spare pillow under your arm or knees. So, while you add a few layers to your pillows for fun, top it all with some accent throw pillows and a throw blanket. You can freshen up and create a haven.

While you’re the bedroom, trim down the closet contents, dust off the nightstands and add a bookshelf or a lamp. These items can be had inexpensively if you like or search for a special one too

We have researched and enjoyed for years, a special linen shop in NY and also one in Italy, which sits at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome. During our travels, we wandered in we have purchased glorious bedding.

I can dream of it now, just slipping in between the sheets, it’s heavenly. We can enjoy in addition to the comfort of cotton, the memories of selecting the perfect color and interacting with the clerk who helped, and carrying them or shipping back. It was a lovely adventure that brings joy still. And then again you can find them in your local shop and love them just as much if travel isn’t your thing. The point is that we create our own destiny and spark, and “What can be conceived, can be created”

Thank you for asking, if I could find a way to start a movement, It would be to stop resource waste and find more ways to truly and actually recycle household and office furniture items. We should find a way to supply the excess we have to those in need.

We demo and remodel often and the amount of waste is beyond belief. Our landfills are full. The agencies that in the past recycled household goods aren’t willing to take most of the products any longer. The Habitat like firms are closing and if it’s not perfect it isn’t recycled. We try and find a home for products and it is nearly impossible to find that home!!

My personal desire is that we all care for the rivers, streams and great outdoors to keep them safe for the next generation

Well, it’s a bit late but I would have loved meeting with Frank Lloyd Wright. His form and function were so inspiring. I love that he worked the outside environment into his projects and used materials that were found in nature nearby.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delgaviogroup/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DelGavioGroup/

Houzz: https://www.houzz.com/pro/pdelgavio/del-gavio-group

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational!

Patricia Del Gavio: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Lizabeth Wesely-Casellam of L-12 Services On The Five Things You Need To Thrive…

Female Founders: Lizabeth Wesely-Casellam of L-12 Services On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Creativity — This is the lifeblood of your founder’s journey. Creativity in products and services is only the beginning. Creativity will help you find funding, focus your messaging, solve crises, streamline workflows, and help you attract high caliber talent. Creativity is the common denominator for founders.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lizabeth Wesely-Casella.

Lizabeth Wesely-Casella is the Founder and CEO of L-12 Services LLC, a firm specializing in internal communications training focused on workflow, processes, and culture. She works alongside her clients as a strategic advisor to create clarity from chaos through streamlined systems, meaningful internal communications strategies, and hands-on support and training for company leaders. Throughout her career, Lizabeth’s work has created lasting positive impact and powerful change across a wide spectrum of clients, from nonprofit organizations to civilian-military lead organizations.

We have to go pretty far back for the beginning of the backstory; over 45 years back, as a matter of fact. It all started with process improvement in a fabric store, and I was about four years old.

Back then, my mom made a lot of our clothes and frequently took me with her to shop for patterns, fabric and sewing materials. Now imagine the reaction of the women at the sales counter when she let me loose, unattended, in the thread aisle. Cross expressions, lots of huffing, and a palpable expectation that this child was going to cause chaos. What they didn’t know, and my mom did, was that my entertainment had nothing to do with creating a furious thread rainbow. Rather, I’d entertain myself by returning the correct color bobbins to the designated tracks. I essentially performed the inventory for the sales team as a means to entertain myself while my mom shopped.

Fast forward to the legal age of employment, and that same fascination landed me jobs, promotions and increasingly exciting opportunities. From commercial construction, to nonprofits, to advocacy and health programs, I’ve found that my greatest contribution is providing unique solutions to the challenges of burnout and overwhelm.

Pattern recognition, streamlining, intuition, and empathy–those skills have served me well and enabled me to design business ecosystems that save time, reduce costs, and improve culture. I’ve been honored to help businesses retain and attract high-caliber talent through exceptional teamwork and outstanding environments.

Part organizational development, part Six Sigma, part Lean philosophy and a lot of listening, I grew a business that focuses on mining solutions from within, rather than looking outside for ‘off the shelf’ answers and one-size-fits-all tools.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

The most interesting, and arguably pivotal, event in my journey as a founder is the work I performed rewriting a health policy for First Lady Obama’s Let’s Move! program. It was the result of eating disorders and weight stigma prevention advocacy, and though it was late in the life cycle of that Administration, I found my sweet spot–leading divergent groups in a common cause by organizing and refining information.

Our coalition was comprised of community leaders who oppose weight stigma messaging but who also view the behaviors surrounding weight and weight loss through significantly different lenses. For example, the eating disorders and obesity prevention communities are on opposite sides of the conversation related to health metrics, and because of this, finding common language and common ground was a challenge. Guiding these passionate leaders through a process of collaboration was a challenge, but in the end, that opportunity helped me identify the ways I wanted to use my skills and the value of sharing that experience with organizations and teams.

This is an excellent question, but I would argue that the statistics are potentially way off if we are asking the question in 2021. Why? Because the pandemic has shifted the entrepreneurial landscape dramatically. We are currently in the beginning stages of what some are calling the Great Resignation, and women make up an increasingly significant part of the workforce leaving employee positions to start their own business. I predict that by 2023 we will see an increase in not only funded female-owned businesses, but also in six, seven, and eight figure businesses with female founders.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Women have reevaluated what they want for a work-life balance. They (we) also have access to programs and a social justice message unlike any other time in recent history. The climate is right for women to make great strides in business, especially as entrepreneurs.

My work regularly connects me with established businesses, so something that I hear quite often is, “I wish we would have thought of this, or built this, from the beginning.” With that in mind, I think that individuals who are thoughtful about building their business and structured in their growth, avoid a lot of problems. What that means in concrete terms is, whether a person wants to build a solopreneur business, or a business with additional teammates, starting out with structure is wise. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are as valuable in a One Woman Shop as much as they are in teams. They help us identify inefficiency and increase standardization. Similarly, memorialized policies and strategic plans keep any size business on track and focused for significant periods of time.

Both of these documented practices will also help down the road if funding is on the table. Investors want to know what you do, how you do it, and what you’ve tried historically, so record keeping is also a way to fast track your proposal materials.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Ruth Bader-Ginsburg was once asked, “When will there be enough women on the Supreme Court?” Her answer was, “When there are nine.”

She meant that we need to normalize women in positions of power, and in my mind, that relates directly to this question. More women should become founders because business leadership is not a male specific activity. Any woman who wants to become a founder or an entrepreneur should have the opportunity to learn what it takes and do so as she feels capable.

As a non-monolithic talent pool, women offer myriad qualities and benefits to the founders and leader eschalon.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

That “doing it all” is the definition of success. I’m not going to get into the weeds on whether or not a person can do it all, but I will say that most women do not have the resources and support to do so and nail everything at the same time. There is a big difference between doing a lot of things marginally and doing a few things exceptionally well. So if you can, choose the things that are important to you, aligned with your values, and that you feel really good about. Don’t set “doing everything” as the metric for succeeding. Not everything has equal weight or importance. The common storyline is the eternally harried professional, and that means the character is actually failing at the one thing that we all deserve: a successful, enjoyable, life. Take care of yourself, experience the journey, connect with others, read for enjoyment. Whatever “life” is to you, don’t neglect that piece in favor of “all the things.”
The founder gets paid last. Whoever thought this up was only playing at business, not a business person. The founder is arguably the hardest working and most invested person in the business, and they deserve to be paid as much as any sub or vendor. Don’t cheat yourself, and don’t fail to prepare. If you pay yourself, you have money to reinvest during lean times; and if you fail to pay yourself, you are not running a business, you are engaged in a hobby. I encourage all founders to read and practice Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz.
Experts must be serious. Not true. Think about some of the best athletes, scientists, actors, and inventors and the moments that go viral. It’s when they look like they are having fun. So, go ahead and be friendly and approachable. What you throw out to the universe you attract to you, and who doesn’t want happy, fun clients?

Is everyone cut out to be a business leader? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful business owner, and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

I would say that anyone who is interested in starting a business, educated about the risks and skill sets required, can test the waters, but not everyone will want to become an entrepreneur once they know what it takes to be successful. And starting a business is different from being a leader.

I don’t want to dissuade people from learning about what it takes. What I’d encourage people to do is think deeply about the many hats, the demands, and the risks required. There are creative solutions for people who have some skills and not others.

For example, many people who own businesses are not hands-on leaders. Others work strictly within one specialty area, such as external sales or product delivery, and surround themselves with experts to manage the other aspects of the business.

Good leaders get to know their people on a deeper level. They invest time and attention in those people who keep the boat afloat through regular one-on-one meetings, net promoter surveys, walking “the floor”, and mentoring. Leaders with high performing teams are interested and available. If being a successful leader is a goal, the milestones to get there include engagement, respect, and genuine communication.

What I’ve seen our clients develop through our work together, and what I’ve experienced firsthand, is a keen ability to hear what’s not being said and to draw those conversations, solutions, or confidence out for the benefit of all involved.

Confidence — You are going to run into people who don’t understand your business, the value of your service, or don’t agree with you. You must believe deeply in what you are offering so profoundly that you can explain it any number of ways, smile through rejection, and consider constructive criticism without throwing in the towel.
Curiosity — The more you open your mind to the possibility that your product or service can improve, the better you and your business will become. Not all input is appropriate, but listen with curiosity for those nuggets that propel you past your competition.
Courage — You are bringing something new to life. You will hear the word no. People will ghost you. Others will negotiate with you for something you don’t agree with. Stand firm, know your value, work hard, and have the courage of your convictions. You are your own greatest champion, and this is your shot.
Compassion — Listen to your clients, team, and vendors. How can you be valuable? How can you make working with you better/easier/more desirable? How do you want to be perceived by your peers or within the business community? Those businesses that are known, liked, and trusted are the ones who give back to all stakeholders in ways both large and small.
Creativity — This is the lifeblood of your founder’s journey. Creativity in products and services is only the beginning. Creativity will help you find funding, focus your messaging, solve crises, streamline workflows, and help you attract high caliber talent. Creativity is the common denominator for founders.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

We’re reminding our clients and their teams that their workplace ecosystem is a direct reflection on that company’s leadership, as well as its people. It requires each participant bringing their best every day to make that ecosystem thrive. We work with our clients to invest and support their teams through better internal communications, systems development, and more. It’s really about treating employees as investment-worthy parts of the company.

And outside of our client work, we’re always looking for ways to create opportunities for our community. L-12 Services in the process of developing a start-up community support resource for businesses owned by women, minorities, and those with disabilities. The work will center around how to position these young businesses to prevent common workflow and process challenges and what to do when growth threatens existing processes. We also provide internships for those interested in learning how to identify and solve workflows, processes, and culture challenges within corporate environments.

A return to being thoughtful. I would love to see people connect the dots between what they do and say with the behavior of others. It’s not a new concept; it’s pretty much the “everything I learned in kindergarten” idea. But over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of people act without considering the impact on others.

Whether it’s ghosting a colleague, not showing the respect of paying attention during a meeting, behaving badly toward service providers, or propagating misinformation, our actions toward others have a ripple effect. If we treat one another with respect and kindness, I believe those ripples will move though society just as fast and far.

Vice President Kamala Harris. She is powerful and confident, but compassionate at the same time, which is pretty freaking cool.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Female Founders: Lizabeth Wesely-Casellam of L-12 Services On The Five Things You Need To Thrive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Cassandra Chase On How To Communicate With Your Team Effectively Even If You Are Rarely In The Same…

Cassandra Chase On How To Communicate With Your Team Effectively Even If You Are Rarely In The Same Physical Space

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

There’s tons of team building opportunities that have developed to get to know your teammates without being physically present with each other. One technique I have found particularly effective is kind of a virtual show-and-tell where people share and talk about an item that means a lot to them. You can really learn a lot about people in those kinds of sharing spaces.

We are living in a new world in which offices are becoming obsolete. How can teams effectively communicate if they are never together? Zoom and Slack are excellent tools, but they don’t replicate all the advantages of being together. What strategies, tools and techniques work to be a highly effective communicator, even if you are not in the same space?

In this interview series, we are interviewing business leaders who share the strategies, tools and techniques they use to effectively and efficiently communicate with their team who may be spread out across the world. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cassandra Chase.

Cassandra is a business owner and social entrepreneur committed to providing marginalized communities with opportunities and essential resources. For ten years, Cassandra has dedicated her career to public service leading massive grassroots efforts in education, health, wellness, and social reform.

Cassandra founded Chase Consulting Group (CCG), a boutique business consulting firm that provides strategic management, business development, and new media marketing services to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government entities. She also co-founded Read Lead, a nonprofit organization that provides literacy and leadership training.

Her foundational work has impacted over 2 million residents in Los Angeles County. In 2020, NIKE recognized and featured Cassandra as a changemaker in the Legacy Project among seven other black women transforming the landscape in Los Angeles.

In her spare time, Cassandra spreads accessible information on wellness, veganism, and yoga. As a thought leader, Cassandra continues to foster a culture of civic engagement in the community in which she lives and works.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Well, ultimately I would say what led me to this career path is a value of service. My Mom is a registered nurse and my Dad is a United Methodist Minister. From a young age, they taught me to lead and serve my community. Activism and community service very much became a way of life growing up. My sister and I were always in a space of listening, and also learning how to strategize. Those aspects of my upbringing are really what sort of brought me to where I am today.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I would say the most interesting part of my journey so far has been being a young leader. For my nonprofit we also hired a lot of young people, and being their leader I had to quickly learn different ways to take in everyone’s perspective. So just as a general point, understanding what it means to be a leader amongst peers has been the most interesting part of starting my own company.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Decisions determine destiny.” This is important to me because many times as a leader I get caught up in thinking about what to do. Each moment in life presents us with a decision we have to make. We have to be intentional about everything we do in every moment, because the next moment is not necessarily garaunteed for us.

My Mom. While she worked for over 40 years as a nurse she was still an entrepreneur. She had her real estate license and taught me the importance of investment properties and owning multiple streams of income. She taught me about balance, doing what you love while also having a staple that can support your family. My mother understood the importance of voting, making sure you have a voice. She was the only one who could vote in my house growing up so she took that responsibility very seriously. We would have family meetings about what was on the ballot because she knew her vote represented the entire family. I have memories of walking into the voting booth with her as a small child because she always wanted to make sure her family was included in the entire process. She was a role model for me, a true leader.

Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The pandemic has changed so many things about the way we behave. One of them, of course, is how we work and how we communicate in our work. Many teams have started working remotely. Working remotely can be very different than working with a team that is in front of you. This provides great opportunity but it can also create unique challenges. To begin, can you articulate for our readers a few of the main benefits of having a team physically together?

I think the biggest benefit of having a team physically together is the ability to feel each other’s energy, sensing when people are into an idea and when they aren’t. The tool of body language is massive, a lot of the communication we have with one another is done without words.

On the flip side, can you articulate for our readers a few of the main challenges that arise when a team is not in the same space?

– Easy to misunderstand, and interpret these things in ways that may have been unintended.

– Have to make assumptions about how something is sharing a thing or saying something.

– Lose personal touch of being in front of a person.

I think it’s easy to misunderstand or interpret things in ways that may have been unintended. When we are communicating through technology we are missing the inflection of someone’s and we are missing their tonality. This forces us to make our own assumptions about how someone is sharing or saying something. That’s a very big challenge, because assumptions can often lead to misundertsandings.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience, what can one do to address or redress each of those challenges? What are your “5 Things You Need To Know To Communicate With Your Team Effectively Even If You Are Rarely In The Same Physical Space ? (Please share a story or example for each.)

To be clear on objectives and goals. (To be able to have a foundation of what you are building off of.)
Listen. (The space of online communication can be very easy for one person to dominate a conversation.)
Use tools to help support communication and understand how eachother best communicates. (Try to understand how some people best communicate, whether that be text, email, or an app like slack.)

Has your company experienced communication challenges with your workforce working from home during the pandemic? For example, does your company allow employees to use their own cell phones or do they use the company’s phone lines for work? Can you share any other issues that came up?

Everyone uses their own technology, and the biggest obstacle which comes with that is connectivity issues. For my non-profit, when schools switched to online learning because of the pandemic, many kids went back to their homes without a proper internet connection. As a society, we have made the assumption that everyone has access to things like the internet. That is not the case, especially in underserved communities. There are so many times when we are conducting a class for students that the internet simply just goes out. We have to address problems like this nationally in order to give everyone access to the internet as we continue to move through the pandemic.

Let’s zoom in a bit. Many tools have been developed to help teams coordinate and communicate with each other. In your personal experiences which tools have been most effective in helping to replicate the benefits of being together in the same space?

The tools I use the most often are Zoom and Google Meet. I have also found Slack to be a huge help because it decongests my email inbox.

If you could design the perfect communication feature or system to help your business, what would it be?

Something that combines scheduling, meeting rooms, and face to face video chat. A one stop place for all of those things.

My particular expertise and interest is in Unified Communications. Has the pandemic changed the need or appeal for unified communications technology requirements? Can you explain?

There is more of a need for this type of communication to happen. The appeal has definitely grown as you see new channels of communication emerge just out of necessity for business during the pandemic.

The technology is rapidly evolving and new tools like VR, AR, and Mixed Reality are being developed to help bring remote teams together in a shared virtual space. Is there any technology coming down the pipeline that excites you?

None that I am familiar with. Honestly, some of the newer technology can be a little weird for me. I am not particularly interested in any one thing that might be on the horizon, but I am definitely open to experimenting with new platforms.

Is there a part of this future vision that concerns you? Can you explain?

Yeah, I think it just takes us further away from getting back in person with each other. I’m worried that we are continuing to innovate new ways to be apart, but together, instead of just being together.

So far we have discussed communication within a team. How has the pandemic changed the way you interact and engage your customers? How much of your interactions have moved to digital such as chatbots, messaging apps, phone, or video calls?

All of my communications have moved to digital. We have had to transition our traditional classes for the nonprofit online. I really want to get back in person for the students, I think physically being present together in a classroom is a huge piece of learning.

In my experience, one of the trickiest parts of working with a remote team is giving honest feedback, in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. If someone is in front of you much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. Can you give a few suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote team member?

I think a prerequisite for giving someone constructive criticism is having a good standing relationship with them. Without that, criticism has a greater potential to come across as harsh. I think the goal we should have when giving another person criticism is to be as clear and supportive as possible.

Can you give any specific ideas about how to create a sense of camaraderie and team cohesion when you are not physically together?

Team building games and opportunities, leadership programs… sharing an object that is very important to you. Anything to kind of get a glance at someone in life.

There’s tons of team building opportunities that have developed to get to know your teammates without being physically present with each other. One technique I have found particularly effective is kind of a virtual show-and-tell where people share and talk about an item that means a lot to them. You can really learn a lot about people in those kinds of sharing spaces.

Ok wonderful. We are nearly done. Here is our last “meaty” question. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I think it would be two-fold. The first part being centered around education, I would want to provide the highest quality of education to learners of all ages. I believe education is the foundation of success, so providing that to people who are in the need of it most would allow us to see a better world through that process. The other thing that I think would help us change the world would be a greater sense of awareness. People becoming more aware of who they are and calling into their lives what they wish to see. By doing this, we will be able to transform the world between our thoughts and actions. In order to accomplish any of this we have to be well ourselves, and take care of who we are.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

– Follow me on insta @mscchase

– My nonprofit @readlead1

– My consulting group: chasegroup.co

Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.

Cassandra Chase On How To Communicate With Your Team Effectively Even If You Are Rarely In The Same… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Walaa of Walaa’s Colorways: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid of negative space. We tend to want to fill every corner of our homes with something, leaving empty spaces is important. It allows you to think and create new things.

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Walaa.

Walaa is a certified color therapist, author, and qualified interior designer mentoring women and entrepreneurs to find renewed confidence, a strong sense of purpose, and a better life balance. As an intuitive color healer and trained interior designer, Walaa has developed a unique 5 modality system for harnessing energy to develop emotional fluidity. She uses a combination of color frequency, crystal sound healing, body release movement, mental reprogramming, and breathwork in one-on-one sessions, group sessions, and workshops to help release blockages. Through her sessions, Walaa encourages women to spiritually and emotionally evolve, giving as much support as they need to move beyond fear, exit of toxic relationships, develop a strong self-understanding through acceptance of their own shadow, and discover a deep connection to their purpose. Her book, Heal Yourself With Color: Harness the Power of Color to Change Your Life, was recently released in July 2021.

9 years ago, I was in Tokyo, I was struggling with my inability to wear vibrant colors and envied everyone around me who wore these colors beautifully. I was hiding behind my dark colors only. I wanted meaning, I wanted to feel my life and be part of it. I found color therapy which helped me understand that I was hiding, not wanting to embrace who I truly was or allow others to see it. Color therapy transformed my life, it helped me dive deep within myself and discover parts of myself that I was hiding from. This helped me find self-acceptance and find the joy in understanding my day to day challenges. I now work with color therapy as a base to redesign people’s lives, online circles, their spaces and offer mentor sessions.

The interior design aspect was hard for me in the beginning as I knew in my core that our spaces affect us more than we are aware of. I want to give people healing spaces, spaces that support their lifestyles and well-being.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

This career has taught me compassion and understanding, it helped me see people’s actions and behaviors from a different lens. The deeper and longer I do this work the stronger my belief in humanity gets.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I began my career, I wanted a playful approach to my work, I thought color is playful, it’s diverse and I wanted to show that. So, I put my list of services on a long menu looking flyer, named the services after food and drinks. Of course, no one understood what I was trying to sell, it was a long menu that sounded like it had food, but it wasn’t?!

I didn’t do my market research then; people didn’t know what color therapy was. I learned I needed to be clear and begin with a small educational offering. Then let my clients guide me to what they need next.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

When you asked me this, the first project that came into my mind was my own home. At the beginning of this year I moved to the countryside, somewhere I never thought I would be because I always considered myself a city girl.

This home has been one of the most challenging and exciting projects to design because it feels that we are all healing in it. The universe made us a family at this time to heal in this home. Working with color, people expect me to constantly be surrounded in it. Even though my color expression has never been in primary colors, it’s always been in earthy tones.

This project has helped me let go of what it is that people expect of me and embrace the healing space that I wanted to create for myself and my family intuitively. Putting all of our needs and creating this space to help us achieve all of what we seek.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Pain is better outside your body”. When we don’t go through the emotions that are uncomfortable by avoiding or numbing them, we store them in our bodies that later create different tensions and discomforts in the body. I have learned to let go of pain by going through it, giving myself what I need during that time and that helped me relate to the world from a place of love.

This is a hard question because I have a very very long list. Today though I want to acknowledge my friend and brand manager Stacey Jessop. We met years ago at a training and she’s been the heart and soul of my business and my own development.

We shared a lot together as we unraveled my own brand expression, color expression and the blocks underneath it all. It’s beautiful to have relationships with women who empower themselves and each other.

Don’t be afraid of adding color. It doesn’t have to be with large pieces or walls; you can always start with small accessories and elements. There are thousands of shades, tints, tones of every color too.
Ask the space what it wants. Whenever I design a space, I always do a round of touching the walls and asking the house, office… etc. What is it that it needs? Perhaps energy, color, emotions, textures, etc. You feel it and you know.
Don’t be afraid of negative space. We tend to want to fill every corner of our homes with something, leaving empty spaces is important. It allows you to think and create new things.
Greenery. Plants bring life and growth; green is a color that helps us heal and disconnect from the noise. Use it in plants as it will vibrate higher.
Color intentions. Colors that are earthy will ground you, colors that are luminous will wake up the space, colors that have white in them will soften the space. Always ask yourself, ‘how do I want this place to feel’ and pick the colors that represent that for you.

Start creating colorful streets, vs the dark streets we drive on. Have soothing colors on highways, uplifting colors in neighborhoods… etc

Nadine Burke Harris, because of her work on childhood trauma, something I truly believe in. I would love to have a conversation about how we can teach more people and governments about this. We can create healthier compassionate societies.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

instagram.com/walaa.colorways

facebook.com/walaa.colorways

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this

Walaa of Walaa’s Colorways: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Cristie Besu of ‘Eat Me Guilt Free’ On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and…

Female Founders: Cristie Besu of ‘Eat Me Guilt Free’ On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Use your woman’s intuition to make decisions even though it’s frowned upon in society. — I have had people roll their eyes at me when I say, “I know in my gut that this is the right thing to do.” Society loves to make decisions based on past successes and data, but if we only follow this in order to create we would have nothing truly new and innovative.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cristie Besu.

Cuban-American Cristie Besu started baking Eat Me Guilt Free treats straight from her very own kitchen in 2013 while working as a registered nurse and certified sports nutritionist. What began as a passion project soon turned into a small business for the mom-of-three, as she discovered the importance and satisfaction protein-packed and better-for-you foods provided to others.

Eat Me Guilt Free was created to fill a void for Besu’s original customers. She worked closely with clients to craft nutrition programs, helping them with everything from disease management to improving labs, to just being able to move and feel better about themselves. Eat Me Guilt Free has worked hard to help consumers feel less restricted and more open to being able to enjoy the everyday foods they love, without sacrificing taste. Eat Me Guilt Free’s consumer base continues to consistently broaden — from athletes to bariatric patients to everyday consumers who are conscious about what they put into their bodies — for a range of reasons beyond external appearance.

I began my journey as a woman entrepreneur as a Registered Nurse and Sports Nutritionist. I started Eat Me Guilt Free as a passion project. My clients turned to me for nutrition and fitness guidance to help curb their sugar cravings. Nurses are problem-solvers by nature, so I started baking products to replace the foods we crave and feel “guilty” about eating, hence the name Eat Me Guilt Free. I started sharing my journey as an entrepreneur on Instagram and rapidly grew a successful D2C business. Since then, we have evolved to national and international distribution.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

As an entrepreneur, I find that I tend to be impulsive and respond too quickly at times. Early on, when I looked across the room at my team members, I realized that I had hired all family and friends. I found myself hiring any human body with a pulse for positions that were needed to find solutions to our growth. It worked out sometimes, but other times, it didn’t. One of the times it worked out wonderfully was when I had to spend my Christmas & New Year’s holiday inspecting our first large pallet sized order to a distributor.

As a leader it took me some time to learn how to build a team. I had heard that you should be slow to hire and quick to fire. Since then, I’ve taken my time to build the team, making sure that not only is each person a good cultural fit, but that they also have the necessary skill set.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Somebody asked me once in a serious business setting, “How many brownies do you think you are going to sell next year?” and my answer was: “All of them.” Although I had a grand vision, my plan lacked tangible goals.

It is important to set goals that are measurable. When we know exactly what we are aiming to accomplish, it makes it easier to align and make decisions that will get us there. It seems that as women, we are doing an amazing job at identifying as business owners, but I feel like we need to start working in a less subjective manner in order to be more impactful.

Yes. You definitely can’t do this alone. Honestly, it’s very difficult to say that just one person was impactful, because I am grateful to and leaned on a lot of friends, family & EMGF members. I think I want to talk about Robert, my first friend/family investor, who eventually began working with me daily at EMGF and sharing the blood, sweat and tears. Rob and I could not be more different when it comes to perspective. Because Rob and I have such different points of view, it helps when making difficult decisions to have the yin to my yang.

There is data that shows that women own 39% of businesses but are only responsible for 8% of employment and 4% of revenues. It shows that we are taking the initiative to start our own businesses but not believing in ourselves enough to ‘think big.’ It is possible that women are searching for freedom in their schedules and creativity in their careers, so they turn to starting a business to quench that desire. However, when they are concerned about their financial stability, the data on revenue and employment for businesses founded by women are not very encouraging.

I think the fear stems from our belief system that has been ingrained by society over hundreds of years, that we cannot do it all. While it is challenging to be a parent and a head of a large corporation, it is not impossible.

We have already started to dip our toes in the water by making up 39% of businesses owned. Now, the next steps are to erase the limiting beliefs that we cannot found and run fortune 500 businesses.

From my personal experience, it took lots of sleepless nights to convince myself that I was more than capable. As a woman, I feel like we have a tremendous amount of feminine grace to add to company cultures that could significantly impact day-to-day operations and viability as a disruptive brand.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

I believe that the first piece of advice for women entrepreneurs is to empower yourself, which grants you the permission to firmly believe that as a female business owner, women do have the ability to be successful. And, of course, elevating other women around us, when given the opportunity, is a given.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

As a woman and a mother, it is intuitive to me that everything I do is being observed and absorbed — and that my actions are more impactful than what my words are. So, taking the steps to lead in a more intentional and elegant manner will inspire more women to follow their dreams.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

Founders are fearless. I think it is not a lack of fear but learning to trust your intuition.

I believe that humans develop, change and evolve so much throughout our lifetime, that it is unfair to say that someone is or is not cut out for something. But I will say that I think a successful founder needs to be in a place where they feel internally aligned, because there is a lot of instability around you when building a business. There is a saying that says you can’t plant a seed when there’s a storm — and by no means am I referring to your external environment being calm and peaceful. I mean your internal environment. There is peace for some people knowing that they can be removed from their work at 5 p.m. and will always have a paycheck, and that is okay.

Believe in yourself.

If you are a woman entrepreneur, you have a vision. You need to be able to continue to see that vision and what aligns with it, even when those around you cannot.

Be patient with yourself.

I have always set very high expectations for myself and my business and would beat myself up when I was reaching steps and not my actual goal. When I learned to celebrate each accomplishment that aligned with my vision regardless of how small it was, I realized that it motivated me to keep pushing forward. I used to believe if I stopped to celebrate, that I would become complacent and not reach my goal. And the truth is, nothing could be further from the truth.

Use your woman’s intuition to make decisions even though it’s frowned upon in society.

I have had people roll their eyes at me when I say, “I know in my gut that this is the right thing to do.” Society loves to make decisions based on past successes and data, but if we only follow this in order to create we would have nothing truly new and innovative.

The ability to find new innovative ways to create & market.

I believe that we all have a sense of creativity somewhere deep inside. Using that whenever problem-solving or building is priceless. Part of our DNA at Eat Me Guilt Free is to never repeat what others have done or what we have done in the past, even if it’s just adding an interesting twist on a previous idea.

Have a sense of what you define is balance.

Building a business has extreme ebbs and flows. Recognizing that if you average out both highs and lows there will be a balance. In other words, chaotic days and uneventful days are both perfectly normal. You need to remain calm and keep a clear mind in order to make decisions.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

In 2020, during the pandemic, most of the world took advantage of or had no choice but to look within ourselves because we had to spend so much time isolated. Eat Me Guilt Free also chose to take this route as a brand and decided what was important to us. As a result, the You Glow Girl Woman Entrepreneur Grant was born. Elevating other women entrepreneurs is both invigorating and motivating to us. And being part of normalizing women founders is, no doubt, going to make the world a better place.

Stop generalizing. If we were all open minded and didn’t use society’s stigmas and stereotypes to make decisions every day, we would advance in leaps and bounds. A movement that encourages people to live in a more conscious and aware state will allow us to be more intentional and inclusive.

I have two. Sheryl Sandberg, because as a female entrepreneur, her book Lean In, is a must read. The second person is Arnold Schwarzenegger because of his ability to believe in himself so strongly that he was able to be successful in at least three very different careers. Most people have difficulty being successful in one career in a lifetime.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this

Female Founders: Cristie Besu of ‘Eat Me Guilt Free’ On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.